Two hours ago, I had a headache blooming. I had started the book early today and, though I hadn't reread the earlier novels, I was caught up in the blossoming story, waiting for more of the Karigan love story subplot.

**May be some spoilers after this point**

Then around page 200, the narrative started to crawl. The view points were too spread out between the main characters and, instead of fleshing them out, just simply detracted from the story. I didn't feel that Estora was any more realized at the end of the book than at the beginning. I didn't think Amberhill, since he was given some writing time to begin with, was given enough time to shine. Fergal, Dale - just some more examples of yet more characters popping up with their own side-stories. And though Karigan is the protagonist, there was not enough writing dedicated to her. It was kind of frustrating.

There were also parts that *really* should have been chucked or glossed over. Karigan's whole conversations with Estral and her friends at the school accomplished nothing but to ask Karigan what had been happening in her life since previous novels. I even dreaded every time the perspective went back to Alton at the wall which, when he still accomplished nothing, only served to dwell on his lack of progress.

My headache started to wear off by page 400 when action started to pick up again. I was happy to find some resolution at the end (there were some things that were also introduced at the end for the next novel to deal with), though unsatisfied with some of the major issues I really cared about (namely the love story aspect that really did not *at all* move along). Hopefully the following books will be more cohesive and less cluttered with side-stories that in no way help the book move forward or develop the characters.